Do you work in an environment where you need to be motivated...but your boss just doesn't motivate you?  This is increasingly the norm, unfortunately.  A recent article by Harvard Business Review gives some helpful pointers if you find yourself in this type of environment.  Check out the article here.

Are you your competitor's best sales person?  Let's rephrase.  Have you ever worked really hard building your products value with a prospect, only to have them go with a cheaper option or a competitor?  That's what we call "scratching the itch."  When you motivate your prospect to change, they often try to scratch the easiest itch they can find.  In other words, once you've identified the problem and created the pain, the prospect seeks to solve that pain in the easiest/cheapest way possible. 

Kurt and Steve discuss some of the main methods for getting around the itch.  The first is obvious.  What are the cheaper options that your prospect will be tempted to go with?  Instead of covertly trying to sabotage these options, what is working best right now is to just drag the options all out into the light.  It's okay to tell your prospect: "look, a lot of individuals I talk to end up trying to find a cheaper version.  I'll tell you right now, it exists.  If price is all you're concerned about, you should go that direction.  Do you have other considerations besides price?"  This gets a critical yes from your prospect and they proceed to tell you all the things besides price that matter to them.  Now you can build value and take the sales cycle away from price.  Battling your prospect on price is seldom a winning proposition.

Tune into the episode for more tools to manage "the itch."  And if you're ready to take things to the next level, visit us at www.universityofpersuasion.com.  There you'll see some of Kurt and Steve's top training programs...some of which are totally free! 

Are you one of those sports fans that feels like the officials are conspiring against your team?  Everybody has been THAT sports fan at some point in their life.  As it turns out you may not be that paranoid.  A recent study shows that shorter NBA refs call more fouls than their taller counter parts.  The question remains though: is this due to a bad case of vantage point or a bad case of "small man syndrome?"  Check out the article here.  It's a fact, though.  We judge people based on height.  The fact that this transcends into sports is no surprise.

On episode 66 of Maximize Your Influence, Kurt and Steve discuss what all sales and business people deal with: rejection.  Dealing with rejection involves two key concepts: 1) how we think about it and 2) how we deal with it.  Having a healthy perspective on rejection and realizing that it happens to everybody, even the best, is where you should start.  Beyond that, there are various habits that successful persuaders get into that allow them to quickly move past rejection and even harness it to create more sales.  Check out episode 66 to learn more!

Persuasion is one of those skills that gives you a leg up on the competition.  When it comes to sales, there is no award for second place.  And advantage you can get goes a long way towards coming in first place!  Make sure you regularly tune up your persuasion ane influence skills.  These are skills that can atrophy over time if you don't use them.  And when you need to use them...it's too late to learn! So why not use Maximize Your Influence to stay fresh!

In Kurt's geeky article moment, we learn what motivates people to pursue their dream job.  Because we all need money, most of us end up selling out our dream job.  But if it's something you really want, you need to have a vivid mindset.  Having a vivid, clear picture of your future will make you sink or swim.  This equally applies in sales.  If your prospects don't have a vivid and clear picture of what it'll be like to use your product, they'll say no.

Continuing on, Kurt and Steve wrap up the series on the 4 R's of Resistance.  The 4th "R" is "Representative."  In other words...it's YOU.  Sometimes people will resist doing business not because of the product, the price, or something else.  It's just something about you.  This has been discussed at length on the show.  People do business with "better looking" people.  This doesn't mean you have to be a model.  But it is time to ask yourself some questions.  Are you dressing fashionably (but not over the top)?  Are you over weight?  Are you still sporting the same haircut you thought looked super cool in 1982? Take a hard look at yourself.  You want too look good...but not too slick. 

Beyond looking good, it comes down to rapport.  Increasingly, however, prospects are getting a lot better at sniffing out the "bs" that sales people throw at them.  The best way to connect is to initially prove your worth.  Once you do this, your prospects will subconsiously give you permission to connect with them and "shoot the bull" as they say.